The present invention relates generally to processing of multimedia data (such as audio and/or video) and, more particularly, to reducing end to end latency of data transmitted from a source device to a sink device.
A typical wireless display (WD) system includes a source device and one or more sink devices. The source device and each of the sink devices may comprise, for example, a mobile telephone, tablet computer, laptop computer, portable media player, or a so-called “smart” phone or tablet, each with the capability to replay audio data and/or display video information on a display to the user. Usually, the source device sends multimedia data to one or more sink devices participating in a particular communication session whereupon the media data is buffered at the sink end and then played back to a user. Latency, in general, is a period of delay between a signal entering and exiting a system. A high latency can detract from the user experience and a low latency is a particular requirement for voice and video over IP systems, video conferencing and wireless display systems. Sink-end buffering is a contributor to end-to-end latency. Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a sink device with a reduced latency.